Under current practice, topping or icing for pastry is packaged in generally conical pastry bags for application to pastry or other food items through a decorating tip extending through a bottom tip portion of the bag. Handling of the pastry bag is an entirely manual operation wherein a user must pick up the bag with two hands, wind the back of the bag to pressurize the bag, squeeze the bag with one or two hands, guide the bag tip to the target with one hand, and replace the bag on a countertop or refrigerator shelf upon completing the application. Manually guiding the decorator tip of the pastry bag while applying even pressure requires significant skill, and introduces the risk of contaminating the bag tip. The current practice makes it difficult to apply extra pressure to the bag as may be necessary to dispense “stiff” toppings or icings, and sometimes the bag ruptures or the bag tip dislodges from the end of the pastry bag during a dispensing operation.